Aeromobil Flying Car May Take Off In 2017

The idea of building fully functional and practical flying cars has been around for some time now. AeroMobil took this idea to the next level by revealing its 3rd-gen prototype in October 2014.

On Monday, Juraj Vaculik, the CEO of AeroMobil revealed a bit more about the company’s future challenges that they have to overcome so as to come up with consumer vehicles that are fully fledged by 2017.

There aren’t many restrictions on travel, so this is no longer an issue. The only issues cited by Vaculik and Stefan Klein, his co-founder are that the world’s air travelers and drivers are restricted by other bottlenecks such as inefficient air travel, lack of infrastructures for places where people want to go and traffic jams. But they feel flying cars can alleviate these problems by moving from 2D to 3D space.

Still there are some daunting regulatory, financial and technical hurdles to clear. Additional infrastructure is also needed to accommodate these forthcoming flying cars. But first is the construction of the car itself. The company is still searching for the right components that will ensure that the car is light enough to fly but is also strong enough to pass the government safety requirements.

However, Vaculik expects that company will solve these problems in the coming two years. He said that superlight and strong materials are not easily obtainable and they don’t come cheap. That’s why he estimates that the initial consumer version of the flying car will cost some hundred thousand euros.

Concerning government approval and money, Vaculik said AeroMobil has a very strong EU support, both in terms of getting public funding to help with production costs and R&D, and also in getting the vehicle certified for operation under its regulatory scheme. Vaculik added that since the flying cars utilizes grass as landing strips, their take-off and landing will only need 650 of space. This will make it easy for the strips to be carved out next to autobahns and highways.

The first offering of AeroMobil will be aimed at affluent enthusiast. It will start by building a few high-end flying cars to build the brand. These two-seater carbon fiber roadsters will fit into the existing regulatory framework as light sport aircraft. This means consumers will need special license to operate them.

The company will however be forced to develop a strategic marketing campaign to get the people comfortable with the idea of flying without a pilot in control.